News from Our Little Corner of the World – Mission Trip Day Three

Yesterday morning, we headed back to our work site with our reinforcements in tow and a positive attitude about the work ahead of us. Two more people on our team meant that we could divide into three work teams at the trailer, which allowed us to get even more done.

Here are some highlights from our work day, which included:

Pulling down moldy drywall from the hallway ceiling.

Finishing our texture job on the back bedroom ceiling.

Putting up new drywall in the hallway ceiling.

Beginning to drywall the living room walls, which included moving furniture and removing pictures and blinds from around the room.

Demoing rotted subfloor in the living room.

Installing laminate flooring in the back bedroom.

Beginning drywall work on the front bedroom’s ceiling, where additional structural damage to the roof was found.

Pulling out old insulation in the front bedroom.

Bracing roof trusses to better support the roof in the front bedroom.

Installing new insulation in the front bedroom ceiling as well.

We felt like we were able to accomplish a lot yesterday and hope to make some real progress again today. There is a team coming in after us tomorrow, who will work another three days on the trailer. We are hoping to hand off the project to them with a lot accomplished, so that the work can be complete by the time they pack up on Monday.

After our day of work, we got cleaned up and headed out to the University of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital for our final Harper’s Hugs bear delivery of our trip. Remembering back to a year ago at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, it was an emotional thing walking into another hospital that serves children and families here. We were greeted by the hospital’s volunteer and donation’s coordinator Belinda who walked us in to find a place for our group to take a picture with her and our bears. As I looked up, my breath caught – the lobby’s sky was filled with beautiful glass flying butterflies.

Butterflies have been a sign of Harper’s spirit and presence for the Rodden family since her death a year ago, so to be greeted by so many on Harper’s first angel anniversary, was just a beautiful reminder that she is spreading her wings and flying – both her spirit here, as her story and love continue to spread around our country and world and as she enjoys life with God in heaven. We knew we had been led to just the right place to make our final bear delivery.

One of the fun things about being in Oklahoma City, is that one of our former Heritage kids lives and works here now as a young adult. Matt has been showing us the sights all week, and took us out on the town yesterday evening. We got a tour of the new Bricktown area (an OKC riverwalk) and then headed to a OK-LA-homa Dodgers baseball game, also located in that area. Despite a rain delay, we had a fun evening watching the Dodgers play ball.

On our way home, Matt drove us by the Oklahoma National Memorial to the 1995 bombing of the Federal building here. We will be touring the museum and memorial before we leave town tomorrow morning, but wanted to see it lit up at night as well.

Taking in the news from around our country and world, we often get too many reminders of the impact of violence. It is good to be reminded that we are called to counter such forces of evil each and every day with deep, abiding, and extravagant love.

As we prepare to head out for our final day of work this morning, that is our goal – to be a force of Christ’s love – a force of good in the little corner of the world we will inhabit today – a small parcel of land, off a country road, near Newalla, OK. May you do the same in whatever corner of the world you find yourself this day.